Judge denies protection requests by campaign

Thursday

May 16, 2019 at 2:04 PMMay 16, 2019 at 2:04 PM

He said threats of 'or else' against Morrissey and others did not meet state statutory requirements for the order

PETERSBURG — A General District Court judge declined to issue a protective order Thursday for Democratic Senate primary candidate Joseph D. Morrissey against a former campaign staffer who, he alleged, threatened him and two campaign workers with extortion and hinted at possibly harming him if he did not pay up.

Judge Robert B. Beasley Jr. said he could see nothing in the Virginia statute that the threats against Morrissey, his campaign manager Whitney Spears, and campaign canvasser Fenton Bland Jr. constituted any promise of bodily harm simply because they contained the words, “or else.” Beasley also said that insinuations made by the former staffer that her boyfriend carried a gun and “knows how to use it” also were inadmissible because the boyfriend was not the subject of the protective order.

“That’s a little too much bootstrapping than the statute can contemplate,” Beasley said.

The campaign has filed warrants for extortion against the former staffer, but it was unknown at press time if they had been served.

The former staffer, who did not appear in court and could not be located later for comment, was identified in testimony. Because she could not be reached for comment, The Progress-Index is withholding her identity.

The worker was hired earlier this year by the Morrissey campaign for the 16th state Senate District race. She accompanied Morrissey and other staffers in their door-to-door campaigning.

All three testified that the woman allegedly began acting strangely on a campaign outing last week. Spears said she noticed a car following them and asked the staffer if she thought the driver was stalking them. Initially, according to Spears, the staffer denied knowledge of him but later admitted he was following them for protection. Spears claimed she was told that the man, who reportedly had recently released from jail, carried a weapon “and he knows how to use it.”

The campaign later found out that the woman had not disclosed a past criminal history of drugs and larceny when she was hired, so she was dismissed May 12. The day before her dismissal, Spears and Bland testified that unbeknownst to them, they each had gotten calls from her asking for money to get into a shelter. However, they said, she refused to go to the shelter the campaign found for her because they would not allow her boyfriend to accompany her.

“She kept telling me, ‘I need money, I need money or else,’” Bland testified. He said he assumed the “or else” referred to the woman’s boyfriend and her gun-use claims.

Spears said she previously had a protective order issued against the woman because of the disagreement over the boyfriend and the subsequent discovery of her criminal past.

Morrissey testified that he exchanged texts with the now-former staffer on the morning of May 13, the day after she was terminated from the campaign, and they were all pleasant. However, he said, that night, she sent a “series of rambling texts” claiming she needed money to get out of Virginia, and if he did not help her immediately, “she would go to the police or the Dance campaign.”

The latter was a reference to state Sen. Rosalyn R. Dance, whom Morrissey is challenging in the June 11 party primary.

“For what?” Beasley asked.

“I don’t know,” Morrissey answered.

Morrissey said the other texts kept demanding he give her money “ASAP.” One, he said, was, “You have one hour and then you can live your life.”

At that point, Morrissey said, he went to a magistrate and had the aforementioned extortion warrants sworn out against the woman.

The three kept referring in their court testimony to her history and alleged issues with recent behavior, but Beasley said that would not have a bearing on his ruling. “We can’t do anything about that,” he said.

Morrissey said in court he understood the potential embarrassment that asking for the protective orders would have on his primary campaign, but if he had not done anything and something happened, “I would not be able to look at myself anymore.”

After court, Morrissey said he hoped that the judge would have at least issued protective orders for Spears and Bland, “but I feel we did the right thing.”

Bill Atkinson may be reached at 804-722-5167 or batkinson@progress-index.com. On Twitter: @BAtkinsonpi

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